50 Shades and Blurred Lines 11
by CockEyedGopher
Summary: Just when there's a "Happily Ever After" - or so it seems - sometimes Life has other plans...


Chapter 63

Scott made it past Christian down the hall, unharmed. Ass-kicking wasn't a good look for a billionaire _celebrity_, after all. People might talk.

One of the last times he saw her, she was dressed the same way she was when he first laid eyes on her.

In a bathrobe.

Only this time she smelled like sex.

She smiled at him, seemingly amused, but there was an element of malice to it.

"Howdy, stranger!" she said brightly.

Christian gave her a tight, weak smile. "How are you."

The energy between them had changed on a dime somehow and became more distant, formal.

They were still lingering just inside the door. She didn't invite him in further, and he didn't ask.

After a long awkward silence, where Hope looked him head-on the entire time, but Christian couldn't seem to meet her eyes, he finally bit the bullet and got to the point. "I just came to say goodbye."

She nodded. She expected that.

This was the part with the requisite goodbye speech. She humored it superbly.

"...I just want you to know, that if you ever need anything, I'm here. Just give me a call." He said gently.

Hope nodded, the lopsided smirk reappearing on her face. If nothing else, she could be a good sport when she wanted to be.

"I want you to know that you'll always be my friend," he blathered on, "You're like a sister to me."

At this point the smirk became a forty-watt grin. "Do you always fuck your sisters and have wet dreams about them?"

Christian looked at her quickly, then looked away.

She laughed mischievously. It was time to wrap this up, she wasn't really interested in continuing this tapdance any further. "Look, you take care of yourself alright? I'd chat, but I kinda have a busy day planned, I'm sorry."

"Oh, sure, sure" he said, and gave her a strange look that could only be described as pitying, and apologetic. She didn't like it, but she took it in stride, and smiled back at him as blithely as ever.

He turned to leave, and, as if he'd just remembered something, he turned back around and extended his hand toward her. She nodded, gave him a firm, strong handshake, looked him right in the eyes. He averted his gaze again. At that point Hope stood back, holding the door open and he made his way out. She closed the door quietly behind him. He didn't look back.

Neither did she.

Behind the wheel of his car, he hung his head and cried.

Hope went back to her bedroom and started tidying up, her jaw clenched, the muscles working tensely.

A month later, the pictures got out.

Chapter 64

"I don't want to get her involved in this," Christian exclaimed, adamant. He sat next to Ana, her hand on his.

Mark Lomer, his head publicist, stared at the two of them across his desk, swaying back and forth in his chair. "At this point, I believe it's the only way to put an end to this whole thing once and for all."

Even Ana agreed.

Initially when the pictures leaked, no one believed it, simply because it seemed so ludicrous to them - somehow no one believed it was at all possible that the man and...woman?...in the pictures, were romantically involved with each other; in fact the very idea became a bit of a running joke, particularly on late night tv during comedic monologues. "_The odds of you winning the lottery are about as good as the odds of Christian Grey getting it on with that girly-boy_."

Crowd roaring and applause.

After awhile, more and more pictures started to surface, enough that people started to take it more seriously. Christian and Ana did a few family photo spreads for magazines and he denied it more than a few times with explanations of the girl in the picture being a friend of his, like a sister to him.

People kept talking anyway.

Ana never believed it whatsoever and initially laughed off the rumors herself, but once things got so far gone and the other women in her social circle started whispering behind their hands about her, it started to bother her. _To think, they believe you cheated on me with...her_, she thought.

It was embarrassing to Ana. Incredibly so. Now she and Lomer both sat, pushing for Christian to contact Hope again and have her attend some kind of photo op/media event to diffuse the entire thing. It just so happened that in a couple days, the Greys were throwing another celebration, this time a fundraiser/banquet to benefit the citizens of Darfur.

Lomer pressed on, Ana sitting there nodding eagerly at his every word. "We arrange for her to show up, take a few pics with you and Ana, and everyone will get the message - these people are just friends with this girl, nothing more."

Ana corrected him, "No, Christian was _helping_ the girl. Tutoring her, helping her with her schoolwork."

Lomer amended his statement, "They'll see you were just helping out another human in need, the philanthropic Mr. Grey." He smiled.

Ana gave a perky nod and turned to Christian. "Honey, this is the best way to settle this whole silly mess once and for all. Call her honey," and with that Ana immediately switched subjects, babbling about how she hoped the world-famous designer she'd contacted, would have her dress ready in time; her plans for her hair as well, before exclaiming happily that Pitt and Jolie were expected to attend...

Christian gave a weak grin and stared ahead, wondering to himself how the hell he'd ever get Hope to show up, having serious doubts.

_There's no way this plan is a good idea._

He thought he'd have a day to himself to figure out how to approach Hope about this, but Ana was determined - she insisted he go see Hope after dinner. _Honey, you have to go take care of this thing; do you know the types of things they say about me at the spa?_

Christian tried calling first, but got no answer. He finally climbed in his new car (a BMW - Ana had decided for them both that name-cache trumphed safety) and made his way down to Oblin.

He knocked on the door, and thought he saw movement behind the peephole; for a few seconds he heard murmurs and rushing about, before the door finally opened.

_She looks the same_, _at least_ he thought which somehow surprised him.

It was clear he'd interrupted something; the asian fellow on the couch looked flushed and none too happy to see Christian standing there; Hope's clothes looked like they'd been in disarray just seconds before, and smoothed down, but not good enough.

Hope introduced the men - "Andy this is Christian; Christian, Andy", before an awkward pause that led to Andy mumbling that he had studying to do and wiggling his way past them. Christian noted to himself that the kid smelled sweaty; and also that this wasn't the same kid who'd slunk out of Hope's place a month before.

"Come in, come in", Hope said casually, shutting the door behind the two of them, planting herself in the single chair in the living room and gesturing Christian toward the couches formally.

"If you agreed to it, I'm sure a lot of the harassment you've been getting lately, would die down significantly", Christian said at last.

People had been giving Hope hell since the pictures leaked; she'd had a few women come up to her clucking and tsking; all the way up to more abusive talk, insults; and, as always, there were the whispers from the cowardly - people talking behind her back as she passed : "His wife is gorgeous, why would he cheat on her with _that_?"

True to People Magazine's prediction, the Greys had been crowned the new Camelot by the public at large, and they weren't too crazy about the idea of this weird little...interloper in their collective vicarious fantasy.

Hope looked him square on. "I don't want to do it; I think if everybody just shut the hell up and stopped addressing it publicly, eventually the whole thing would die down from the front of the public's minds anyway."

"Do you really want to wait that long? Even worse, what if it doesn't and this becomes something that trails you around for the rest of your life? You can't want that kind of life for yourself."

"I don't, but I'd also prefer not to be trotted out like a zoo animal on display. I've had enough of that shit in my life; I don't want more."

He remembered. Christian looked down at his hands in shame, his cheeks flushing red.

After a long while, he started up again. "This would just be a one-time thing, Hope. I discussed this with my publicist and my wife, and we all agreed that it's the best plan of action."

She smirked at him. "I suspect that it was largely your wife who thought it was the best choice of action. No one wants the public to think their husband is fucking _me_." She chuckled wryly.

He ignored that, and pressed on. "Will you attend the banquet?"

Hope just wanted him out of her face, and was willing to do or say just about anything in that moment to make it happen, so she didn't have to look at him anymore. She leaned back in the chair, throwing her arm over the back and sneered. "Sure, I'll go."

"You will - you're not just bullshitting me?" Christian wanted to be sure.

"Yeah, I'll go."

"The dress is formal."

"I'm not wearing a dress", Hope interrupted immediately.

Christian had to smile at that. Memories.

"Just as long as it's formal", he said, heading toward the door. "Be ready at eight."


End file.
